A word regarding Word

[rolanni]

I would just like to say to the person in ITS who informed me that Microsoft Word is the Very Best Program for secretaries to lay posters out with, and, no, the college was not going to allow me to purchase a "lay Out pro GRAM" (pronunciation and emphasis original to the conversation) so I could do my job in a reasonable manner?

I'd just like to say to this person -- Word. Sucks. Very. Large. Rocks. And I hope your stock in MicroSmurf plummets.

Thank you.

Comments

[drammar.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[katmoonshaker.livejournal.com]

Excuse me?? No way. As both a graphic artist and someone who has done work as a non-profit worker for Girl Scout Troops and other organizations Word is NOT suited for anything other than word processing. That is its intended use. For publishing in the same family of programs you need to use Publisher. However, if they want to use a less expensive program, there are quite reasonable programs which they can find in any office supply store for under $20. Any of them will do the job quite nicely if all they are wanting is a simple poster, card, or business card layout. These programs even come with clipart which groups that are not using a particular project for resale can use. Hope that helps!

Word

[fangers.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. I have been one of those infamous ITS jerks for years but you shouldn't lean too hard on us poor idiots since mostly IT is concerned with doing only the "right thing". Which is usually synonymous with following the corporate path. (whatever that might be) Personally I have always found that there is a good tool out there somewhere and all you have to do is find it. Ha. Love your books so please finish poor Theo's journey when you can.

[caoilfhionn.livejournal.com]

Once upon a time, someone tried to get me to do book layout in Word, "because you can make it look just the same." (The fact that real layout cost more had nothing to do with it, of course.) And it's horrid.

Would they spring for Microsoft Publisher? It's evil, but it's better than Word. (As someone else has already pointed out. Read the comments first, sleepy!)

[ambug666.livejournal.com]

Preaching to the choir. Word sucks!

[adamek.livejournal.com]

Can you use something free like Inkscape, or are you prevented from installing software?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Alas, I drive a Mac at the day-job. Also, they would rather not I install my own software, which is cool, because I don't have the faintest idea how to install software on Mac.

Mac

[wdonohue.livejournal.com]

Stock Mac installs don't usually come with a copy of Apple's Pages app, but you might want to look for it on your machine anyway. You might be able to push for a copy of iWork, which includes Pages. It's $79 retail, the educational discount is only $8 though. It's not InDesign, but it is better than Word for what you need to do.

-- Brian out --

[ckd]

Hmm. Depending on what particular Mac you have and how they install/manage it, you might have a copy of an older version of OmniGraffle on there. If so, give that a try.

(As for how to install it, the answer is usually "open the disk image, drag the program into the Applications folder, then "eject" the disk image.)

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

tell your ITS jerk that you'll use it just as soon as he shows you how. I end up throwing things when asked to design in Word.

Just in case it helps... Open Office has a Draw program. It's fairly good for letter and legal sized layouts. I haven't tried it for anything larger. I think Open Office is shareware, or has a very modest fee. You might look into it.

Kristen

[claydowling.livejournal.com]

A combination of Inkscape and Scribus are good bets. I helped a local friary get set up with this, and the brother I spoke with was very happy for the change. He had been laying out their newsletter with Publisher and he was not amused.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

I'm almost willing to bet that this translates to "we have the Microsoft educational package deal" and "I don't want to have to teach other secretaries how to do something." Neither of which is an excuse -- their job for the university is to find the best possible programs, and then to help users with them. But having done this work for a while, I know that's not a popular view -- most ITS (IT Support?) seem to think their job is to get by with the least possible effort.

You might suggest that this page http://www.download32.com/free-poster-layouts-software.html provides a number of free layout programs. Scribus also seems to be relatively widely mentioned http://www.scribus.net/

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

As an IT person you are correct. Word sucks for that kind of task and a lot of other similar tasks. It is fine for what it does but it is not the best tool for page layout and design.

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's some tasty crack your IT department is smoking.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Yup.

I write in MS-Word because it makes it easier to work with Bantam, but I still have a copy of Lotus Wordpro around for printing off labels and other such tasks that I've never been able to figure out how to do in word.

[(Anonymous)]

Probably the college has an educational deal with Microsoft.

Which, if you drive a Mac at work, is just so much more suckage, because although the folks at Microsoft who design for Macs are utterly dedicated folk, they are ::ahem:: somewhat isolated from the rest of their firm.

And word processing is not publishing is not layout is not design. Just not.

[sambear.livejournal.com]

Forgive me, but would not The GIMP work? And be free?

[patinagle.livejournal.com]

Agree absolutely. Word SUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKSSSSS!!!!!!

[(Anonymous)]

If you have the whole Microsoft Office package, Powerpoint is an option. It's supposed to be for slide shows, but allows a fairly flexible outline. And prints to plotters so you can print large posters if needed.